"The most dangerous thing for a living organism is that it does not recognize the danger. Leadership and correct identification of the dangers in time are required to make a decision to remove the danger" (Benyamin Netanyahu, Likud faction 2009).
The idea according to which the first duty of the leader is to identify danger, Netanyahu presented countless times.
he was right.
But in the case of the revelry in Miron, it is a failure in its application.
The disaster in Miron (archive), photo: Moshe Mizrahi
The scene of the disaster in Miron (archive), photo: David Cohen, Gini
12 years in power, numerous reports of the State Comptroller, legal petitions that went up to the High Court and plenty of warning letters, should have turned on a red light for him or his people.
In his own opinion, he was the one who should have been "the first to identify".
So for this reason alone, the "I didn't see, I didn't know, I didn't hear" version that he presented to the Miron Committee, sounded clearly unreliable.
All the more so that Netanyahu personally took care of the 2021 festivity.
He pressed to open the mountain for the deadly revelry.
It was important to him to please his ultra-Orthodox allies.
Of course, neither he nor they could have imagined that after many years of the event passing peacefully, precisely in this celebration of the end of the Corona virus, such a terrible disaster would occur.
Rather, the mobilization of a political leader to fulfill the will of his constituents, as long as this is done responsibly and legally, is a fine democratic act.
The revelry in Miron, before the disaster (archive), photo: Israel Police
But you also need a particularly high degree of detachment, to say "it was not brought to my attention".
It's your job to know.
You explained it yourself.
The outrageous abdication of responsibility by Netanyahu and others was interrupted yesterday by the investigative committee with the issuance of 18 warning letters.
Not politicization and cover-up, but law, justice and the disclosure of the truth without fear.
This is the message that comes from sending the letters.
Warning does not mean guilt.
Each of the recipients of the letters, including Netanyahu, will of course be able to defend himself against the accusations.
It is possible that Netanyahu really did not know and could not know.
But it is also possible that his involvement in the Miron events will lead to the end of his career, public and legal, regardless of the criminal trial against him.
The funeral of Avraham Ambon from the Miron disaster in Jerusalem (archive), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
But above and beyond Netanyahu, what is important is finding out the truth, so that it is not buried in the belly of the earth with the 45 who perished.
That is why the action of the commission of inquiry into the Miron disaster, as well as the sending of the warning letters yesterday, are a sign of normality and responsibility.
In the political reality that prevailed in the country in the weeks after the disaster, even such a step required by reality, such as the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the greatest civil disaster in the country's history, was impossible, because politics contaminated every possible part.
The establishment of the committee by the outgoing government, the truth must be admitted, was also done for a political motive.
And yet, above politics, from one side or the other, stands the people, and it is the people that the politicians are supposed to serve.
Without words, this basic principle was also written last night on 18 official papers on behalf of the State of Israel, and it is necessary for the Israeli public like air to breathe.
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